Founded in 1969, Esri sells geographic information system (GIS) software that enables clients to manipulate and visualize data. According to the company, their software is used by more than 350,000 organizations around the world, including the 200 largest cities in the United States, national governments, more than two-thirds of companies on the Fortune 500 list, and colleges and universities.

“Geographic Information System technology gives students powerful tools for understanding our planet, and teaches them to become problem solvers,” Dangermond is quoted as saying in a company press release. “It is a perfect complement to (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses and many other classroom activities, while preparing students for further education and expanding career opportunities in fields that can help better manage our world, build better lives for more people, and design a better future.”

More than 100,000 elementary, middle and high schools in the United States will have free access to mapping and data visualization software created by the company. Each ArcGIS online account is worth $10,000, according to the company.

Tuesday’s announcement is the culmination of Esri working with educators growing in scale in recent years, according to Charlie Fitzpatrick, the company’s education manager.

“We started with individual teachers, then schools, then districts, then states ... and then recently, it was ‘what’s next?’” he said.

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Google Earth has long been a staple in classrooms, but the ArcGIS software allows students and teachers to map data they generate themselves.

“Second- and third-graders are looking at the distribution of bugs in a playground: ‘Why do we have the concentration of ant colonies over here and not many over there?’” Fitzpatrick said. “The key is to be asking questions about the relationships they see in everyday life. It doesn’t need to be globally massive phenomena. They can see patterns in everyday life.”

Esri’s pledge is in response to President Barack Obama’s call for business to create new opportunities for students through classroom technology. Obama’s ConnectED initiative seeks to bring high-speed connections to all K-12 classrooms in the next few years, along with access to mobile computing devices, high-quality software and teacher training.

“I used this software to work on a social justice project,” said Roosevelt senior Roxana Ayala, who met Obama on Tuesday. “We focused on the Los Angeles area and (looked at) how segregation still exists in schools. We looked at graduation rates, the races that live in a particular area and school funding and these maps helped us get a better visual of how our schools are still segregated by income and color.”

Ayala will be attending UC Irvine in the fall. She’s not sure what she’ll be majoring in, but Esri’s software has definitely influenced her thinking.

“Ever since the project, it’s made me passionate about using computers and software to change communities,” she said.

Amazon Web Services will be providing cloud support for the ArcGIS software for the schools for three years, according to the Esri press release.